Angioplasty is a relatively recent technique for the treatment of cardiovascular disease caused by atherosclerosis. The original technique originally used progressively larger catheters to open a blocked artery. Later, a technique using a miniature balloon catheter was developed.
Since angioplasty is the treatment of choice in many cases of cardiovascular disease, there have been many attempts to improve the technique. When inserting the balloon catheter into the artery in an attempt to open the artery, high pressures often need to be developed. Many devices have been developed to generate these high pressures in a convenient device. One such device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,654,027 issued Mar. 31, 1987 to Dragan et al, which is herein incorporated by reference. With the device disclosed in this patent, high pressures can quickly be obtained inflating the balloon catheter. This increases the likelihood of opening up the restricted or blocked artery.
However, due to the high pressures obtained, the balloon catheter could possibly come very close to rupturing the artery. When the pressure exceeds a predetermined value or behaves erratically, it is extremely critical to quickly deflate the balloon catheter to avoid possibly rupturing the artery being worked upon.
In many prior art devices, the balloon catheter could not be deflated as quickly as desired. A lever would typically have to be rotated 90 degrees to release the pressure within the balloon catheter. Often, the doctor would have to remove one hand from the device to rotate the lever when the balloon catheter needed to be deflated. Many times this occurred at a very critical moment when confusion or a slight delay could result in a rupturing of the artery. Rupturing of the artery could possibly be fatal to the patient.
Therefore, there is a need for a device that will permit quick and easy deflation of a balloon catheter used in angioplasty.